What the *****

Gasoline up13 cents because of a hurricane in Texas. Two things come to mind - why do we have to pay more when we don't get one cc from Texas, and why do we send our gas to Texas and put our prices up. Answers please and remember "Steve" promised in the last election to roll back taxes if gas went over 85 cents, so don't believe a bloody word this man may say about this big hike.

Items culled from the morning papers

Never mind the puffin crap, one for the other guys:
NDP scores a point in election web war - Posted

Adolph Harper loses it

The joys of the internet, a link from Prof. Washburn gives us this gem of satire YouTube - Adolph Harper loses it

Two months off and now it's time to comment

The PM who lies!
Stephen Harper, with great fanfare, passed a few laws last session, one of them a fixed election law. Now the very act of ignoring this law, and I disregard all conservative justification as prevarification and obfuscation, makes the statement the fourth great lie in the trilogy (the last one being, "the cheque's in the mail"). Click here for a youtube comment

My reason for the two months off:
I was tired, of making comment and of the local conditions, so I joined the "who gives a damn club". Well it appears I do give a damn and accept the challenges of white space on the pages and punditry. 10 days in Europe performing sightseeing and family duties was fun and the greatest thing I did was to take pic of my great-uncle's name on a war memorial - very moving. But back to work there is an election to comment on.

I will now tell you my bias
A sign has gone up on my lawn - an NDP sign. As it has been common knowledge for years I usually do not have to tell anyone what my political opinion is as it has been assumed for years that I am a raving loony socialist. Not quite true but close enough. So I will not be advocating that Jack should be Prime Minister as loudly as people assume I would, but he is my preference to the others.

A waste of time and a slap in the face
The decision of the Cobourg PSB to host a search for the next Chief of Police is a waste of money and slap in the face for the Acting Chief - Paul Sweet. This man has restored both fiscal responsibility and respect for the service. As well as saving money by cutting sick time by boosting morale; this alone surely rates being given the job - ten years too late!

An amazing piece of local cyber-history

Reading this morning's papers about the launch of a new search engine, one that may or may not challenge Google for supremacy, I decided to test it. So using a well known, but still unknown worldly reference I punched in my name. This is one of the pages that came back. opinion page: everybody has them, some stink more than others Some of you may be interested in what I was thinking in the millennium years and others may be amazed that some of the local issues haven't changed a great deal, just the names.

A comment about Obama that I can agree with

Peter Hitchens writing in the "Sunday Mail":

"JFK and Ronald Reagan actually had something to say when they went to Berlin, because the wall that sliced through the city so clearly illustrated the brutal ‘we know better than you’ arrogance of idealistic Leftism. Now the wall is gone, and the most Left-wing person ever to run for President of the USA tries to steal his forerunners’ standing by driveling to a crowd in a park, most of whom can’t understand a word he says. Lucky for them, say I. When will Mr Obama’s absurd bubble of adulation burst?"

Read this for a realistic angle on jail

Read this opinion from the UK, conditions are the same in North America and think about it - or just reject it as liberal crap. Either way it is pertinent! Crime problem? Just lock 'em in the lavatory

I can finally agree with something Corcoran said

In an op-ed piece here in the National Post this morning Terence Corcoran disagrees with the fundamentals of the recent spectrum auction. In this country the airwaves are regulated and in a fit of government activism the ruling party, as would the opposition, decided to auction off the place that broadband lives - the wireless frequency. Canadians have been paying through the nose for the use of cell phones due to an oligarchy of three non-competitive phone companies. These companies purchased 60% of the airwaves offered and 40% was set aside for new comers. This was done in the naive belief that competition would ensue thereby bringing prices down.

I agree with Corcoran and disagree with the premise: how can new companies burdened with so much debt, used to buy spectrum, compete with the oligarchy. The real result will be no change and the big three will buy the startup's airspace and continue to hose us with high cell phone charges. Buy shares in Rogers and Shaw!

Another JibJab commentary

Look what the big boxes have done, in the minds of the JibJabbers here

Stuff for Monday morning

Why do people bother to go to Council when nothing will happen to what they say:


This is an item on the Council agenda for Monday evening. Mr Taggart is going to tell Council what his client thinks of the idea of roadblocks, imposed by Councils, on the property at Tremaine St. The old Cobourg Matting Company site is rundown, abandoned and sits in a floodplain. There is a plan to redevelop it with homes (what else!). However it appears by the wording of the agenda it doesn't matter what Mr Taggart and his client say, none of it will be acted on as the remarks, whatever they are, are already determined to be consigned to the official hiding place of limbo-land, known as "received for information". And, Council still doesn't understand why they are fading into political irrelevance in the eyes and ears of the voters.

The Cobourg Star finds a new guy!
Dan Christie, selfstyled curmudgeon and sometimes renaissance man has a new gig. Every other Monday the readers of the CDS will find 750 words of "wisdom according to Dan". However the first attempt didn't get off to such a good start. Dan trying to shed his 'bad-boy' image penned a piece of pablum about the pablamic subject of "nice". Unfortunately the other 'bad-boy of the pen' - Wally Keeler, read the piece and spotted a quote which had been wrongly attributed to the wrong author. Pens flew and a correction was issued and although the axchange will never be worthy of the literary sparks produced by the "London set" of the 1930s it is an indication that Dan had better sharpen up as others are just waiting to pounce.

Another Superjail saga looms
Many people can remember the 'superjail debate'. It took place about ten years ago in Cramahe Twp. Acrimonious exchanges pro and con divided the Township. Eventually the jail was sited in Lindsay and things died down. I say this for the spectre of jail debate has entered the County politic. A report has been filed at the governmental level that recommends, amongst other things, that a new 'superjail be constructed in Kingston and smaller jails be closed and the system consolidated at the 'superjail'. The area pols are horrified, the MP says there's nothing to worry about and Stockwell Day, the Minister of the Interior, says "Yep it's one of the recommendations, but don't worry it's a good ten years off." My money is on the opinion published by local Lawyer John Hill. He said that the fix is in, MP Rick Norlock is being taken for a ride and the system is going to follow the US example of building "SuperMax".